Transcript
Speaker: And I accept that offer. If the price for your help is giving you back what you should rightfully have anyway, and that is a price I pay willingly.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Fellowship of the Tabletop. We are a live-play D&D podcast set in the magical home-brewed world of Aerith, currently deep underneath the sands of Dralak.
Speaker: I am... Will, I'm playing Karstan, your loving bard, and quite frankly, you're here for me. We all you've been looking forward this episode. You're like, ah, can't wait for more of Karstan. It's going to be great. And also with us to take us through this story. It's like a little podcast, this. You've got, you know, a little one-to-one intro. You've got with me is Danny, the delightful Danny today, our Dungeon Master for today.
Speaker: Bonjour. You say like for today, like it's going to change. It has been me for about 150 episodes now. Been a long guess, but you know, soon you might want to like hang up your headphones and... There will be a day, there will be a day where that will happen.
Speaker: ah And I will um no longer know what to do with my planning sessions anymore in the week. You'll be sat there in the evening going, what do I plan? I'm playing character now. What do I do again? I must take my life seriously and go sort some adult adult stuff out, I think.
Speaker: That's overrated. Yeah. Speak about overrated. oh I realized we didn't do an old girl trope last week. but Yeah, but we don't. I don't think. I feel like we can't we can't do that. We can't do that because. We don't need it. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you might you you might say that, but I'm not going to attempt to perform said accent um for fear of absolutely absolutely losing all of the listenership.
Speaker: So anyway,
Speaker: we find ourselves... On the eve, on the moment, the pivotal point in Karstan's eyes in how to change the fortune of this counter-alignment.
Speaker: What happens in the next few moments of dialogue between dragon and man could decide the fate of Aerith.
Speaker: When we left you last week, Chandra LaCarre uttered the words, You stand alive because I allow it. Speak carefully, surface dweller. And her eyes gazed aggressively now at you, Karstan Finbin Falhorn, blight hero, teller of stories.
Speaker: So Chandra Lekar is towering above and Karstan allows himself to take a moment, take a breath.
Speaker: mean, the last time he was this close to a dragon, it was probably undead during the Battle of the Blight, during that final battle. And he drops to a knee.
Speaker: Chandra Lekar, Storm Mother,
Speaker: Empress of the Sands of Drellac, I come before you
Speaker: to ask no, to plead and if need be beg for your aid in helping Eryth in its time of need.
Speaker: I'm listening. stands upon a precipice.
Speaker: The steel nightmare hangs above the sky.
Speaker: Forces ancient
Speaker: but not alien to Aerith have emerged.
Speaker: the demons of Tolkelon,
Speaker: the armored beings of the steel nightmare, the servants of the princess, of the queens and the family that once ruled Aerith, who once held Aerith under its sway, have returned.
Speaker: The people of this time, the people of Eryth now,
Speaker: must raise their voices up.
Speaker: And when I say people, I mean all. Elves, dwarves, humans, dragons.
Speaker: For this danger threatens us all.
Speaker: In eons past, it was not dragons who ruled, but in the absence of that royalty, the dragons divided up their kingdoms to create the Ereth we know now, and they have protected them for eons.
Speaker: But dragons have fallen in these years. There are less of you now. And that is a shame. A shame? travesty. It your kind that have destroyed them.
Speaker: And I do not seek to speak or offer an apology on behalf of those for my words would just be empty. I cannot apologize for the betrayals of Trace.
Speaker: And he almost spits the word.
Speaker: Delmond Trace, who has so insidiously
Speaker: carved himself power out of e Earth at the expense of your kind the expense of everybody.
Speaker: You have a right to be angered. No, you have a right to be outraged by this, Chandra LaCarre. I do not wish to take that away from you.
Speaker: But we are on a precipice.
Speaker: And we all of Eryth needs to stand
Speaker: and fight for what we are. Because if we don't, if we do not stand and fight as ah yeah as a group
Speaker: against the Steel Nightmare, against the force of Tolkilon, we will fall. And this world will either become a demon plane or be subjugated by the steel nightmare.
Speaker: And your people could become shackled as they once were eons ago.
Speaker: I do not want to see that. And I'm sure you do not wish...
Speaker: Do you think me unwise?
Speaker: You only present two versions of what is to come.
Speaker: The third you would hope is that you remain here.
Speaker: it is Erythians
Speaker: that have betrayed me Not creatures from the sky, not of creatures from the hells, but those who are here now.
Speaker: I smell the betrayer on you, Blight
Speaker: What makes you think I wish for you all to survive,
Speaker: when all you have done is kill my children?
Speaker: cripple my kin in other kingdoms and you come here empty handed
Speaker: do not be misguided storyteller it is a Rhythians I despise most
Speaker: Karthin's been kneeling but before this point. And he raises himself to his feet.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: There is no point in me standing here trying to turn a good argument, turn a quick phrase. ah can't deny how you feel. There is no point me trying.
Speaker: You feel betrayed. You feel hurt. You feel insulted
Speaker: by Orithians.
Speaker: Okay. I don't deny that.
Speaker: You say that the people of the sky, demons haven't helmed you. Okay.
Speaker: But they will.
Speaker: If we fail, one of them wins. And I appreciate your awesome power.
Speaker: But how many of your brothers and sisters are left?
Speaker: The chamber shakes.
Speaker: Our numbers have fallen because of you.
Speaker: Enslaving us. Slaughtering us.
Speaker: There is a cackling electrical charge now beginning to fill the chamber as she's becoming angrier.
Speaker: You say that it's because of me, of Erythians.
Speaker: I think you speak of Delmon Trace. He does not speak for the people of Eryth. Trace is not the betrayer I speak of, but the exile you travel with. I smell him on you.
Speaker: Trace has never killed any of my children.
Speaker: Trace and his people have done unspeakable things to your kind. I've seen their corpses. they breath.
Speaker: And on that, a big flash of lightning charges about 30 feet above your head and strikes the rock. And you're forced to kind of cover your ears for a split second.
Speaker: I came here.
Speaker: Chandra LaCarre.
Speaker: Storm mother.
Speaker: dragger, draconic protector of Dralak,
Speaker: to appeal to your sense of what was good, to your sense of what is right. And I do not deny you have been wronged.
Speaker: But have you seen what has happened to Dralak?
Speaker: I've seen the cities in flames.
Speaker: Not by the betrayer, not by aerythians,
Speaker: but by demons.
Speaker: Your kingdom is crumbling.
Speaker: And how many kingdoms have to fall
Speaker: until you're the last one and there's nobody left to stand with you to fight these beings.
Speaker: And in that moment, Chandra LaCarr,
Speaker: Will your rage at the things the betrayer and Aerith has done to you, will that rage save you when all of Aerith has fallen and you are left?
Speaker: That rage won't save you then.
Speaker: And dragonkind and Aerith as we know it will be gone. and there'll be no one to remember it.
Speaker: I do not want to see dragonkind leave these lands. I've seen what Erythians, in their misguided
Speaker: ways, what they have done to dragonkind. I've been beneath the streets of Goldview seen the experiments Delmon Trace and his people have done.
Speaker: No creature as great and majestic as dragonkind should ever be caged like that.
Speaker: you and your brothers and sisters chose to protect kingdoms for a reason. A reason, I hope, is because you knew and remembered what had come before in the eons, before humanity could remember, before elves, before dwarves.
Speaker: I hoped that perhaps Dragonkind had decided to go, no, we can guide and shepherd these young races.
Speaker: And we are young compared to yourself.
Speaker: We're children.
Speaker: Children make mistakes, Chandrala Carr.
Speaker: Children do things wrong.
Speaker: And sometimes they have to do things wrong to get it right later on.
Speaker: And so why did you see fit that my children were never allowed the same freedom?
Speaker: am a mother scorned.
Speaker: There are two eggs that the undying heroes managed to save. That's correct. They are safe.
Speaker: Stolen.
Speaker: Do not get me wrong. There are some amongst that party who I feel would steal
Speaker: their own mother's feet. But
Speaker: There are some there who would not steal.
Speaker: I think they kept those eggs because they knew they wished to return them.
Speaker: And return them they will.
Speaker: I pledge now that when I leave here, whether you have agreed to help or not, I promise you I will return those eggs to you. If they are yours, I will return them to you.
Speaker: If they are mine. Well, they are yours.
Speaker: But there are other eggs out there, aren't there not?
Speaker: They are mine. A mother knows.
Speaker: and Then return to you they should be.
Speaker: Where are they?
Speaker: In Goldview. No, not Goldview. In Sleetgaard. Apologies. Where?
Speaker: I don't know their exact location right now. I don't. They did not tell me. Make a deception check. Of course.
Speaker: It's 26th.
Speaker: So now you hold them as leverage.
Speaker: I don't want them to be leverage, Chandra LaCarre. That would be insulting to you
Speaker: if you. would If you had intentions a for me to help you, it would have been fitting to have returned them home.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: But I wasn't sure I would survive the journey here. When I last left Dralak, demons were everywhere. I did not want to risk bringing those eggs myself for me to be attacked in the desert by the demons and then to be taken.
Speaker: In all honesty,
Speaker: they are safe. They will be returned to you.
Speaker: But i did not know whether this journey to you would succeed. I've arrived here. That is a small victory at the moment. The lands are dangerous now.
Speaker: Explosion check. Okay.
Speaker: yeah
Speaker: You come here with a request. I would listen to it if you would tell me the location of the X, for I do not trust your answer.
Speaker: As far as I'm aware? If I was to guess,
Speaker: and I, in all honesty, cannot say exactly where they are.
Speaker: If the undying champions were sensible, they would leave them at goal port keep. But, and the cast and hold his finger for a moment.
Speaker: Let us be honest. The undying champions are not always sensible.
Speaker: If I was them, i would leave them safe at Goldport Keep.
Speaker: If I was an idiot,
Speaker: I would carry them with me.
Speaker: Probably with
Speaker: the betrayer.
Speaker: Or
Speaker: there is another option.
Speaker: Though I don't know if, and I can't remember,
Speaker: I wonder if if Baal would have given them to Galefire. But no, that would not be right.
Speaker: The cackle of lightning builds up again
Speaker: and sits in her throat when you mention that that might be the case.
Speaker: I don't know. I know where I would leave them. And you're right to be angry. To give them to Galefire is like giving a Another, well, it is giving someone else, someone else's children.
Speaker: Make a deception check. I mean, I'm not going lie. Will can't remember. Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's 31.
Speaker: So either the they are with the betrayer
Speaker: They are with this false matriarch or they're at your keep.
Speaker: Thank you for the information. It is the first kindness you have given me so far.
Speaker: Before I leave to relocate them,
Speaker: What is your ask? Why are you here? I'm here because we need your help to stop the steel nightmare.
Speaker: There is a counter alignment going on. That steel nightmare is building to something, something that's happened several times. I don't know whether you're aware of how time works. Believe me, this makes my head hurt.
Speaker: But apparently we have lived through these events time and time and time again.
Speaker: And that's still nightmare is building to something, to an alignment that will doom us all. But there is a counter to this, counter alignment, the third phase.
Speaker: A group of people as we speak, heroes as we speak, are fighting the forces of Tolkilon.
Speaker: are within the hells themselves, I assume. I hope not, but they probably are by now.
Speaker: In order to ensure that the ability to get to the steel nightmare is allowed. And there will be a window.
Speaker: Six seconds of weakness in what protects the steel nightmare. And in that small window, we need something powerful enough, strong enough to break through the barrier, carrying a select few onto the still nightmare so that they can ensure others are able to follow.
Speaker: That is what we ask of you, Chandrila Carr, Storm Mother. Because you are the most powerful thing we know
Speaker: who could achieve what is needed. For there are none others, none who could match your power right now.
Speaker: Make a persuasion check.
Speaker: Oh, it's nice.
Speaker: There is a lengthy pause.
Speaker: She re-centers some of that channeled fury and the cackling kind of blue sparks around her throat dissipate.
Speaker: And what will you offer me in return?
Speaker: I suppose the...
Speaker: Karsan pauses for a moment, smiles to himself.
Speaker: I suppose the recognition of being responsible for saving Erith and having that told across the land...
Speaker: That is not what interests me. I thought not. I care not for fame amongst the common folk.
Speaker: Then, how about this?
Speaker: There are three places that you think you need to go to try and find where the eggs are.
Speaker: Instead,
Speaker: I'll bring them back for for you.
Speaker: I will pledge to you that I will bring them back and ensure they are returned to you without any provisos that the others will try and put on anything, without any
Speaker: without any further conflict.
Speaker: that will that divides us, I'll bring them back. They will be yours. There is no need for any conflict that might occur as you try and reclaim your rightful children.
Speaker: When?
Speaker: When all this is done,
Speaker: I want them first.
Speaker: I want to see them before I offer a single bolt of help.
Speaker: Forgive me if I am not trusting of the parties you keep.
Speaker: Any goodwill is lost because of the their actions.
Speaker: I would have my children return before I help you. It's a fair deal.
Speaker: There's a problem, Shondrella Kaur.
Speaker: Time is not with us. Time is not with you. Do not involve me.
Speaker: And Karsan opens his hands...
Speaker: then why involve yourself, Shondrala Kha, Storm Mother? if this If you say time is not with you and time is against me, then you still don't understand.
Speaker: Time is against Aerith, and you are part of Aerith.
Speaker: Time is against us all. Whether you like it or not, time is against us all.
Speaker: And I need you to know that.
Speaker: Help us or not, I'll return your eggs. Whether you help us or not, I will walk away from here and I will asure in ensure to you that I will return those eggs to you.
Speaker: And we will try and find another way to save Earth. And I say the word try.
Speaker: Because without your help, it is try. With your help, there is far more chance of that being certain.
Speaker: But if you don't help us, and I leave, and we fail,
Speaker: I know what happens your eggs after that point. whatever the demons or whatever, whatever the above or below decide have and manage to do once they fought each other.
Speaker: But help us and you will get your eggs.
Speaker: I'm a bard. I'm a weaver of words.
Speaker: But when I speak the truth, I do so with power within my words. Because like the dragons of old, I know there is power in words.
Speaker: There is a power within song that so ab binds Aerith itself.
Speaker: Bars like me tap into that power, like dipping a toe in water.
Speaker: Dragonkin like yourself, swim within those waters. You know Aerith. You are bound and part of Erith.
Speaker: When dragons suffer, kingdoms suffer for a reason.
Speaker: If Erith falls,
Speaker: everything falls. I would love to be able to say from here, absolutely, I will go and get your eggs for you, but I don't have the time. Because by the time I do that, we have lost.
Speaker: And then this time now
Speaker: is just words wasted.
Speaker: Time I can give you. I will take you to the X. I will save you two more days.
Speaker: And I accept that offer. If the price for your help is giving you back what you should rightfully have anyway, then that is a price I pay willingly.
Speaker: and I will ensure those eggs are returned to you.
Speaker: If others disagree with me, then I'll make them dance and take the eggs off them anyway.
Speaker: Make a persuasion check. Okay.
Speaker: Ah, what a pants roll that is. 12. That's me rolling a natty one and then adding my bonus.
Speaker: You have said one very truthful thing so far, Bard.
Speaker: I am the greatest power on Aerith.
Speaker: As such, it might surprise you to learn you are not the first visitor I have had this month.
Speaker: You are the fourth.
Speaker: All parties in this war are coveting my support.
Speaker: And I fear you have played your hand too soon.
Speaker: For now I'll have learned of this counter-alignment.
Speaker: One word.
Speaker: One misstep now. Finbin Valorn.
Speaker: And this counter alignment will be known to all. Do you understand?
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: And I won't lie.
Speaker: Of the four parties...
Speaker: I mean, if Trace is one of them, then that's interesting.
Speaker: At least one of the other groups, maybe he does know, that whole cycles thing gets a bit complicated.
Speaker: I played my hand. You're right.
Speaker: But then I did say, because you spoke of being betrayed, being deceived of being manipulated i did not want to come into this being like the others let me guess they promised you the egg they promised you could keep your kingdom they promised lots of things and they gave you words
Speaker: okay she laughs no
Speaker: I have spoken to the Grand Chronomancer in the Nightmare. I have spoken to the Archdevil Tolkelon himself. All covered my power.
Speaker: And you don't even do me the decency of buying the one token of good favor.
Speaker: You had. This is your last chance, bud.
Speaker: Take me to those eggs now.
Speaker: or my allegiance is elsewhere in this war.
Speaker: When I came here, Chandra LaCarre.
Speaker: I thought perhaps appealing to your better nature. I've tried.
Speaker: I have tried. You have tried. You are keeping me from my children. What better nature are you searching for?
Speaker: One who sees the whole picture.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I'm keeping nothing from you, Shondra LaCarr. I've told you everything I know.
Speaker: You've got the cards now.
Speaker: Help us. Don't help us.
Speaker: It's up to you.
Speaker: The egg's yours. I don't need you to take me back home. I'll make my own way. I'll find the eggs and I will ensure they are placed at Goldport Keep if they are not already.
Speaker: Then come and get them. Take them away and do what you have to do to be happy.
Speaker: I'm not going to tell you what choice to make, Sondra Lekar.
Speaker: I'm a human. My lifespan, my life is a blink of an eye to one as ancient as you.
Speaker: It's not for me to tell you what to do.
Speaker: It's not for me to say, you must do this to help this. I can't promise you if you do this, this will happen.
Speaker: I've said to you what might happen.
Speaker: A piece of free advice from a storyteller.
Speaker: The others have said to you, they made you promises. Brilliant.
Speaker: But you've been betrayed by Orithians.
Speaker: If you wish to back them,
Speaker: go ahead. All you will experience is being betrayed by someone else again, somewhere down the line.
Speaker: I thank you for your time. And he bows.
Speaker: If you'll permit me,
Speaker: i will leave. Travel where I came from. The eggs be at Goldport Keep as soon as I can put them there.
Speaker: They're yours. matter what you choose to do, I'm not going to use them as bargaining chips. They're yours. Fuck it.
Speaker: My bargaining chip is this. Aerith needs you.
Speaker: You want to back it up? Go ahead. If you want to betray it as you have been betrayed,
Speaker: go ahead. None of us can stop you.
Speaker: But you know how it feels. Aerith needs heroes right now.
Speaker: I'll let you decide what side you're on.
Speaker: There's a low rumble.
Speaker: And she steps further out into the cabin, shakes, stretches, and this mass gust of wind unfurls her full wingspan.
Speaker: And it is like looking at three or four warships, front to back, along this massive cavern.
Speaker: And she just snarls back.
Speaker: I just wanted my children back.
Speaker: Now I'll go searching where you have told me to search.
Speaker: And when I find them,
Speaker: You will leave these holes.
Speaker: But you've come with nothing. You've convinced me of nothing. gosh
Speaker: When I return...
Speaker: I had better have those eggs with me.
Speaker: Or it will not just be you who dies in these halls, but everyone I saw in the walls and the tunnel that you walked through, your mother, your friends,
Speaker: starting with Queen Helena Slidgard. Or will perish before the week is out.
Speaker: Goodbye, storyteller.
Speaker: And there is
Speaker: series of tectonic bangs that echo from now below you to above you. and a series of massive boulders fall into the tunnel
Speaker: and caught beneath the windy vortex of a now ascending Chandra LaCarr you are near pushed onto your ass as you watch her leave this cavern due north
Speaker: And you stand there, robed, alone and trapped.
Speaker: Is there anything you wish to say or do?
Speaker: When you say it's trapped, what do you mean? The only route to this platform was through the halls, through the tunnel behind you that's now been smashed and covered with boulders.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now, Karstan, unlike before, you feel a prisoner.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: And that is where we're going to end this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop, Bellum Draconis.
Speaker: Okay. This gets interesting.
Speaker: Until next time, guys. Farewell. Farewell.
